Coffey — Prehistoric Cenotaphs. 17 



of instances, however, as has already been stated, the barrows are 

 found empty, not because they are so in reality, but because they have 

 not been searched exhaustively. The absence of any signs of a burial, 

 where a barrow has been minutely and fully examiued, is due, in my 

 opinion, to the entire decay of the skeleton, in cases where no weapon, 

 implement, ornament, or vase has accompanied the body."i 



Again, under Barrow xlvh.. Canon Greenwell writes: — 

 "It was the most perplexing barrow I have ever met with; and 

 but for my complete disbelief that monuments of a more artificial age, 

 such as cenotaphs, had any existence during the era of these burial 

 mounds, I should feel that it offers a problem very difficult to solve 

 on any other supposition."^ 



More recent researches in the barrows of the ITorth of England 

 {Archceologia, 1890) have induced Canon Greenwell to modify his 

 position. He now reluctantly admits the possibility of cenotaphs. 

 This change of opinion is based on the result of the exploration of the 

 barrow called "Willie Howe," in the East Eiding of Yorkshire. 

 Concerning this barrow he writes — 



" Throughout the whole course of my barrow explorations I have 

 never met with anything that I can compare with this mound. It 

 was of more than ordinary size, and constructed at the expense of 

 much labour, well proportioned and symmetrically made, and in every 

 way appeared to have been intended for a place of sepulture. Beneath 

 it at the centre was a deep excavation in the solid chalk rock, in which 

 were found remains of animal bones almost as sound as when they 

 were deposited, a condition which would have equally been incidental 

 to human bones, l^o disturbance had ever taken place within the 

 grave to account for the disappearance of the body or its accompanying 

 relics, and it is almost impossible to believe that an interment had ever 

 been made in it. I can attempt no explanation of the very peculiar 

 features here manifested, except one which I have arrived at with 

 great reluctance. Until I opened WUlie Howe I had always dis- 

 believed in the erection of such memorials as cenotaphs at the time 

 when these barrows were constructed. That supposition appears, 

 however, to be countenanced by the experience of this mound, and I 

 am forced to admit the possibility that this very large mass of chalk 

 stones was thrown up merely to commemorate, and not to contain, the 

 body of some great personage. There is still a difficulty which this 



1 British. Barrows, page 27. ^ I. c, page 202. See also Barrows xci. and cxxix. 

 E.I. A. PEOC. SEE. ni., VOL. IV. C 



